This weekend I spent a few days in Sheffield. My home town, well the city I was born and brought up in. Every time I go back there I am astounded by the changes. So I would highly recommend it for a short break, if you don’t mind the hills.
On Saturday I spent pretty much a whole day in the sprawling city centre. The weather was lovely and it was a very nostalgic trip. Quite close to the railway station is the ‘Site Gallery‘ on Brown Street, which is an international centre for contemporary art. Sadly, even though they often hold photography based exhibitions they were between shows. Also I was disappointed to learn that I just missed a show of wall drawings by Sol LeWitt, which had been held throughout May. If you get the opportunity to view his work please do so.
From there I wondered up Howard street to the large and impressive ‘Millennium Gallery‘, where I discovered an extensive (and free) show called ‘Watercour in Britain’. This on on until 5th September. Purely as a side issue. When I was a student, a pal of mine was a chap called Geoff Kersey. He is now a watercolourist based in the Peak District.
The breadth of the watercolour exhibition was great and some of the work was exceedingly interesting. Amongst many others, there were watercolours by William Blake (1757-1827), paintings of Sheffield by Herbert Slater (1892-1975) and work by JMW Turner (1775-1851), most notably, for me, was the atmospheric ‘Geneva’ – 1841/2 and ‘Castelli di Cannero on Logo Maggiore from the North’ – 1843. What a cracking show, and from somebody who tended to dismiss the craft of watercolour painting as twee and chocolate box this was an eye opener. Sadly the show ends with examples of work from some local (I think) daubers. Very twee and chocolat box and not needed at all.
As a student in the 70′s I often went to the ‘Graves Gallery‘, which is quite close the ‘The Millennium’. Back then the shows tended to be traditional, although I found some of the permanent collection very good for illustrating drawing and brush technique and how light falls upon objects or people.
By pure chance, in Graves Gallery there was a show of landscape photography by the Fay Godwin (1931 – 2005). Alongside this show and as a comparison, the photography produced by Paul Nash. Nash (1889 – 1946) was primarily known as an English landscape painter, surrealist and official war artist. His photography is less known but important never the less as one can see it’s influence upon his painting.
All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed my trawl around some of the Sheffield galleries. It just goes to show that there is a lot to see out there if you are interested in photography and art in general.
